Base of Operation and Target Ministry: A New Way of Looking at Churches

A church’s Base of Operation is what we have traditionally thought of as the whole church. It is a group of people with similar Christian beliefs who purchase a facility and meet regularly. There are typically eight to ten basic ministries that churches naturally start in order to be recognizable as a church: preaching, music, youth, children, nurseries, women and men. Plus there is a Missions program which translates into primarily a Missions Budget. There are two kinds of staff, ministry staff who oversee the Base of Operation ministries and the support staff, maintenance people, who also are focused on the Base of Operation.

If a church is able to hire a multiple staff, the first person hired is usually a senior pastor. Next, they hire an associate who can work with either music or youth or both. A normal staff is filled out when someone is paid to oversee the basic ministry categories. If a church isn’t able to afford a paid staff to oversee all the basic ministry areas, they typically recruit volunteers to oversee them.

As churches grow, their staffs become more sophisticated, e.g. paying a Nursery Coordinator, or a Pastor for this or that. And the single secretary becomes a bunch secretary’s. There are variations but the basics of the Base of Operation have remained remarkably the same for several decades.

Churches have thought of themselves in the context described above for a long time. It won’t be easy to expand our basic understanding of what a church looks like. We need not reduce the eight or ten ministries that churches are expected to do. All the basic ministries are important. But if churches are going to become places where everyone’s ministry calling can be recognized and valued, a Second Dimension, i.e. Target Group Ministries must be added to the mix.

Target Group Ministries are very different than Base of Operation Ministries. While the Base of Operation is made up of ministries and services that the culture expects in a church, there are no such expectations for the Target Groups. I am pulling for the second dimension not to be drowned out by the desk jockeys.